How businesses view reviews has always been ambivalent since they can seemingly do as much harm as good. We are here to change this a little and show you why you should respond to online reviews, whether good or bad!
Bolstering brand recognition
First, you should quickly respond to online reviews to build your brand. Now, there are many methods of digital marketing for moving companies that also help with this. And it would be best if you did not focus solely on responding to online reviews to achieve it. But if you are trying to accelerate the growth of your brand, every bit counts, and this method can quickly put you in touch with your customer base! The whole basis of it is simple: it gets people to remember you, and your brand sticks in their memory longer. You are much more likely to remember a brand whose representatives politely respond to your review and thank you rather than a brand that takes your money and forgets about you. This, naturally, also attaches a much nicer image to your brand!
Improving your reputation
Speaking of the ‘imagine’ of your moving company, a simple reason why you should respond to online reviews is to improve their reputation. A reputation is not just something you should care about when you need to salvage it. It would be best to protect your corporate reputation from day one, and working on online reviews is reliable. It sheds some of the impersonality and coldness of running any business, including a moving company, and makes you more personable. The ‘care’ you show towards your customers also makes you be perceived more positively. Even if problems do pop up with your reputation or services later on, solid and friendly behavior prior will make dealing with this much more accessible. After all, it is easier to regain a good reputation if you have the goodwill of your customers to fall back on.
Showing an effort to improve
Of course, when talking about bad reputations and problems, one thing pops into people’s minds: bad reviews. Bad reviews are typically seen as a horrible thing by most businesses. And they try to either ignore them, if not outright eliminate them. However, this is a mistake since those reviews allow you to show you listen to your customers. You can actively engage with bad reviewers, ask for more feedback if it is scarce, or assure them you are working on it. You should also post status updates under the original review or on your social media. Even positive reviews can be used for this since you can actively ask for advice on what you could improve! This ‘fixes’ the influence of bad reviews and can even be a way how to generate moving leads, since potential customers often read reviews!
Collecting useful data
Both good and bad reviews can provide you with a ton of valuable data. They show you what your customers are interested in and dissatisfied with. Even how customers respond to your marketing and their current level of brand loyalty, you can, of course, choose to passively absorb all this data. But engaging with customers can instead yield even more. You can even steer the conversation’s direction if the customer replies in turn, especially if you follow our previous advice about showing an effort to improve and engage inquisitively, even with positive reviews. This active drive and approach to data gathering will make your reviews section much more helpful than it otherwise would be. Yet, it’s just something you can take advantage of passively while you work on other benefits of online review replies.
Improving your SEO is why you should respond to online reviews
Yet another reason why you should respond to online reviews is that they help your SEO! Whether the review is on your Google My Business page or another review platform, Google flags the reviews that relate to your moving company. This means that all the reviews you get subtly affect your SEO. Now, it won’t ruin your keyword rankings or anything. But the bad and good reviews jeopardize your standing in Google search results. And while the thoughts won’t waste your keywords, you can improve them. Including keywords in your response gets them flagged by Google, too! While SEO for moving companies is not dreadfully difficult to improve, you should still take the chance, especially since it can be seen as an added benefit to all the other reasons to respond to reviews.
Raise customer loyalty
The final reason why you should respond to online reviews is to enhance your customer’s loyalty. It is unfortunate, but nonetheless, that movers have a lot of difficulties with hanging onto their customers. You do not need the services of a moving company very often unless you are in a unique position. As such, anything that can improve your customer retention and help you with how to advertise a moving company to previous customers is invaluable. The reason why responding to online reviews works for this is that it shows you care. It creates a closer bond between you and your customers. Especially if you take the time to customize your responses a little and mention the customer’s name in it. It shows that you don’t see them as faceless customers to earn money. And it naturally enhances their loyalty to your brand.
A practical yet seldom used tool
All the reasons why you should respond to online reviews quickly reveal just how useful they can be! And yet, many businesses ignore this venue of improving further, which costs them in the long run. So, instead of wasting such a solid opportunity, grasp it thoroughly for your moving company’s future!
